


Oh, Frog?

by LanxBorealis



Series: Once Upon A Time Duology [3]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Gen, History, Inspired By Gravity Falls, Magic, Monologue, No Spoilers, Once Upon a Time Duology, Short One Shot, Spin Off, world building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 05:30:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17277986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LanxBorealis/pseuds/LanxBorealis
Summary: Afytha reminiscents of a better time, when humans knew their place in the world, and when the forest did not burn.[Once Upon a Time Duology oneshot]





	Oh, Frog?

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a while back, but am just now posting it I guess. This is an Afytha-focused piece that mainly lays down some world building and themes that will be followed up by the rewrite of Life is a Fairytale and its eventual sequel. 
> 
> This can be read before LiaFt or after it (once that fic is rewritten and posted...) 
> 
> I don't consider any of the following spoilers, really. But if you want to go into the rewrite of LiaFt completely blind, I DO NOT recommend reading this!

Golden light seeped through the canopy of the pine trees, dappling a small, babbling brook. Throughout the forest, bird twitter and squirrel scuffling, amongst other animal noises, fractured the usual silence. 

The babbling brook, small and forgotten, bubbled. Brought out by the calm and the peace of the day, Afytha rose from her slumber. She stretched her arms over her head. Shuddering as the warm air hit her cool, newly formed skin, she sat down at the edge of her brook.

_ Her  _ brook. The mere thought of it sent a thrill of both fear and sorrow through her. 

Closing her eyes, Afytha granted herself a second to enjoy the warm sunbeams on her face, the little noises surrounding her, and the long, swaying grass beneath her. 

Afytha blinked her eyes open. The brilliant mirror of the sky met her own true blue eyes. However, it wasn’t the overarching firmament that brought her back from her tiny reverie. 

Beneath the soft breaths of the waves, a little purple glimmer caught her eyes. With a small smile, Afytha cupped her webbed hands and dipped them into  _ her  _ brook. 

_ Her brook.  _

From the waters, Afytha cupped a minuscule lavender tadpole in the pool of her hands. No water seeped from her webbed fingers.

She allowed a small smile to quirk the edges of her lips; a rare gesture she had almost forgotten how to do. 

“Hello, little one. Welcome,” she murmured to the tiny tadpole. “You are quite strange, aren’t you? Being born here, you must be magical.” 

Afytha paused for a second. She tilted her head, contemplating her coming words. “Perhaps one day, you’ll be able to speak back to me. That would be lovely.”

The little purple tadpole swam in circles. Its bulbous eyes gave no indication of understanding. 

Afytha sighed. “Or, perhaps, you will simply be a purple frog. Not a magical frog.”

The little purple tadpole did not reply. 

Afytha shook her head. She brought the tadpole closer to her breast, curling around it as a mother would do a newborn babe. “Well.” Her willowy voice grew stronger. “Either way, you are a denizen of this forest now. And you deserve to know the sort of place you have been born into.” 

Afytha gulped. Her already quiet voice dropped another octave. She glanced around herself, glaring at the trees surrounding her. 

All were pines, none were birch, and yet she still didn’t feel safe. Still, Afytha steeled herself.

For too many years to count, she had kept silent. She allowed  _ her brook  _ to speak gurgled words no one but her found meaning in, to curse and cry and seethe. 

Cursing and crying and seething was all well and good, but she found herself ready to speak of  _ real  _ meaning. Actual words, with meaning behind them. And, more importantly, a story. 

Not just any story, of course. But a true story.

Afytha tore her eyes from the towering trees; trees she no longer trusted. She kept her gentle smile pinned for the little purple tadpole still swimming in her hands. 

“This place seems peaceful, perhaps, for those who lack the magical skill to  _ feel  _ it. Perhaps you can feel it, my little tadpole. Can you feel the silence of the trees? The anger in each blade of grass? Can you sense the taint in the air?” 

Afytha sighed. “Perhaps you can’t. But perhaps you will. This forest was once beautiful. It once held so much life, so much magic. But now it's decaying. It’s been decaying for so many years.” 

The little purple tadpole continued to swim in its circles. 

“So many moons ago, a lifetime ago, this forest with no name had truly been magical. It had been  _ ours.”  _ Afytha glanced back at the trees. They did not stir. 

She continued. “Us creatures of the water, of the land, and of the sky all lived in harmony. Then, the humans came. They built their settlements. They fought their wars. And those humans fought their wars against beings even more powerful than us creatures living amongst the forest.” 

Afytha hunched her shoulders up. Now that she had begun, she couldn’t hope to stop the words spilling from her mouth. Nor could she stop the tears now pricking her eyes from falling. 

“Humans cannot live in harmony with us of the water, land, and air. They poison everything they touch.” Afytha turned her face back to the brilliant mirror of the firmament. “Humans talk of peace, but nature has no peace. Nor it has war. Both are creations of humans. If only the existence of war gives meaning to peace, then peace is just as cruel. Without war, without peace, only balance is left. I had thought it was the humans to watch out for and their talks of war and peace. But that’s before I met  _ him.” _

Afytha gulped. “I had never seen evil before I met  _ him,  _ tainted by the humans he was forced to fight _.  _ Within harmony, there is no evil. Simply differences. Evil is not natural, not to humans and not to us creatures either. It is outside the realm of Earth, found only in the deepest cracks of the universe. Evil is born in war and festers during periods of peace.” 

The sudden screech of a deer being caught by a wild wolf shook Afytha. Her entire body tensed. The remains of the fins on the sides of her head shivered. 

“It was merely a wolf,” she muttered to the little purple tadpole. “But those dangers are those of hunger. It’s simply the natural order of things. There was order, many moons ago. A natural order of how we all lived in harmony. But the humans did not agree to that harmony. Greed festered inside their hearts and they desired more. So they tried to take it for themselves.” 

Afytha released another long sigh. “They invented war and trapped the evil they created  _ here.  _ Some fled in fear. But others….” Afytha cast a long look toward her bubbling brook. “....Others didn’t have the choice to leave.” 

“Perhaps you will have the choice to leave, little one. Or perhaps not.” She wiggled one of her fingers, brushing it against the little purple tadpole’s side. “Only time will tell. I know, so new into this world, you probably don’t see the tyranny we all live under. After all, it is a beautiful day.”

Afytha shook her head. “The sun still shines on days of bloodshed and terror, however. When that evil beast was trapped here, the creatures of the sky tried to destroy it. The dragons banned together with their foe, the griffons. In the end, even they burned. The creatures of the land submitted, but us of the water did not bow our heads so quickly.” 

“I, among others, was one-- was one--” Afytha gulped, struggling to talk around her torrent of tears. They traced down her cheeks, dripping into the grass, returning to the brook. She sniffled and snorted. “I-- I can still feel the fire sometimes. I was so foolish. In a world with no harmony, even flames can burn water.” Afytha gulped. “We surrendered quietly after that. That wildfire cut our connections with one another. I can’t even travel up the mountains anymore. I have been nearly alone since.” 

Afytha hung her head. “I hope you are not merely a frog, little tadpole. And yet, having the ability to carry such knowledge I do is agony. Perhaps the parting of knowledge is not a gift, but a curse. Perhaps, I am bad for wishing you sentience in a world so twisted, in a home ruled by a tyrant.” Afytha closed her eyes. She lowered the tadpole back into the waters of  _ her brook.  _

_ Her brook.  _ The last she had uttered such words, her fins had been clawed off.

Afytha watched as the little purple tadpole darted back into the shadows of the waters. “Rest well, little one,” she whispered, her words broken. Her heart hung heavy in her chest. Standing, she slipped back into the brook herself. 

Afytha looked up toward the mountains. Back then, before  _ him,  _ the waterfalls had crashed into rivers that traced along the whole forest. Now, nothing but sandy banks were left. 

Back then,  _ her brook  _ had been  _ her river,  _ and she had been able to travel wherever she wished. Now, she couldn’t even remember the sound of Multibear’s voice. She couldn’t recall what a gnome looked like either.

_ Hyui. Trwen. Gyuuorah.  _ She wondered if her fellow nymphs were alive, but still trapped in their own stolen homes. Or perhaps they had been burned to a crisp just like the dragons and griffins. 

Afytha wanted to curse herself for hoping the latter, but she couldn’t bring herself to even feel guilty at her own horrid thoughts. 

So, instead, casting one last look at the bright, sunny day surrounding her, Afytha sighed and melted back into the shadows of the bubbling brook.

_ Her brook.  _

**Author's Note:**

> Since I'm here, some minor updates about the LiaFt rewrite: I actually have loads of new ideas for it. I finished rewriting all my notes and backstory for LiaFt as well. The world building, for now, is also complete.   
> I have begun tentatively working on a rough outline for the story as a whole, but I really do need to go back and reread my own work... which is difficult for me, especially since I don't even ship BillDip anymore. I plan on doing so once some personal matters are better attended to and I can focus on it more. 
> 
> Anyways! This is short, but I hope this little peek back into the universe interests at least some of you! Afytha is an interesting character to write for and it was fun hopping back into her head for a bit of time. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are appreciated!


End file.
